Gillian Moore

Kwe­si Jef­fers used a com­bi­na­tion of lyri­cal skill, strong stage pres­ence and im­pres­sive vo­cal tal­ent to come out on top at Mon­day night's Young Kings Ca­lyp­so Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion, pre­sent­ed by the Na­tion­al Cul­tur­al Ac­tion Com­mit­tee at Pier One, Ch­aguara­mas.

A good crowd came out to sup­port the ca­lyp­so­ni­ans at the show, ad­ver­tised to start at 7.30 pm. Af­ter prayers, ad­dress­es, cul­tur­al awards and a guest per­for­mance by last year's King, Jer­vae Cae­sar, singing That is Small Busi­ness, com­pe­ti­tion got start­ed at 8.40, when MC Phae­dra Pierre called the first of 18 com­peti­tors on­stage, ac­com­pa­nied by Earl Knight and Ser­vices Brass. Ware got it start­ed on a nos­tal­gic note, with Ca­lyp­so Trib­ute, in which he hailed the con­tri­bu­tions of kaiso greats of yes­ter­year. Next, Der­rick Seales sang God Bless de Caribbean, fo­cus­ing on some of the achieve­ments of the re­gion, and call­ing for uni­ty. Wal­ter Tay­lor fol­lowed with Signs, im­press­ing with his pow­er­ful singing voice. A Na­tion Af­ter God was Mar­lon Ed­wards' ef­fort, a rous­ing gospel-in­flu­enced song as­sert­ing that T&T is di­vine­ly favoured. Dra­mat­ic footage of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters her­ald­ed the start of Jef­fers' Cli­mate Change. His drum-dri­ven kaiso called for lis­ten­ers to cher­ish Moth­er Earth. Good stage craft and his big, soul­ful voice marked him as the one to beat.

Kekere fol­lowed with Unite the Cul­tures, punc­tu­at­ing his call for to­geth­er­ness with his sig­na­ture dance moves. Sekon Alves' More than a Pan­side lament­ed the de­par­ture of Des­per­a­does from Laven­tille, say­ing the fa­bled steel­band rep­re­sent­ed an im­por­tant cor­ner­stone of the com­mu­ni­ty's soul. At num­ber eight, Wen­dell Goodridge sang of po­lit­i­cal dis­il­lu­sion­ment in Bas­deo Man­ning Patrick Pan­day, be­fore the win­ner of this year's Stars of To­mor­row Com­pe­ti­tion, Guid­ance, sang Wound­ed Na­tion. His strong, pas­sion­ate voice got his mes­sage across as he cit­ed nu­mer­ous prob­lems fac­ing the coun­try. Com­ing right be­fore the break was Fal­co, with a per­cus­sive, chut­ney-in­fused num­ber, Bap­tist Melody. Jadee re­sumed the show with Mighty Men of God, an­oth­er gospel-in­flu­enced song, fol­lowed by vet­er­an Hamidul­lah, who sang It Start­ed with We, a clever com­po­si­tion de­clar­ing that the old­er gen­er­a­tion should ac­cept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for so­cial prob­lems, in­stead of blam­ing youths. In Na­tion­al Pride, es­cort­ed by a pair of Moko jumbies, Du­ane O'Con­nor took on the $2 mil­lion na­tion­al flag de­ba­cle, de­clar­ing that a bet­ter way to in­stil pride was to fix the na­tion's many wrongs.

Nin­ja's My Com­pa­ny took the form of a re­trench­ment let­ter to his "out­side woman". He made the au­di­ence laugh, us­ing busi­ness jar­gon to let his para­mour go. Kaiso Mon­ey was the con­tri­bu­tion of Dr Will B. He ap­pealed for bet­ter treat­ment and re­mu­ner­a­tion for the ca­lyp­so art­form. Re­veal­er, singing In­tegri­ty, con­front­ed the is­sue of be­lea­guered in­tegri­ty com­mis­sions, let­ting the Pres­i­dent know that "grass­roots have in­tegri­ty too". Penul­ti­mate per­former Shel­don Nugget came on with Spe­cial Peo­ple, a well com­posed ap­peal for com­pas­sion and fair treat­ment for dif­fer­ent­ly-abled mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty. To­ba­go Chalkie (Alex Gift), who won the To­ba­go Young King Com­pe­ti­tion on Sun­day night, closed things off, short­ly be­fore mid­night, with Co­coa Melee.

?RE­SULTS

1. Kwe­si Jef­fers�Cli­mate Change

2. Sekon Alves–More than a Pan­side

3. Guid­ance–Wound­ed Na­tion

4. Shel­don Nugget–Spe­cial Peo­ple

5. To­ba­go Chalkie–Co­coa Melee

6. Du­ane O'Con­nor–Na­tion­al Pride

7. Nin­ja–My Com­pa­ny

8. Hamidul­lah–It Start­ed with We

9. Re­veal­er–In­tegri­ty

10. Der­rick Seales–God Bless The Caribbean & Wal­ter Tay­lor - Signs.